Chopping up an 81 XJ 550 (A little pic heavy)

Hey first of all I will I would like to say that I am new to the site and it is full of great information thanks to the members. I just bought my first XJ550 and I will be trying to go with the bobber look or rat bike. And this will be my first time to customize a bike, I have done cars and trucks and now I want to build a bike. I always had the luxury of my friends welding and now I will have to do the welding to hardtail and I have never welded before. I am going to buy a welder this week and practice on some scrap. So any help or tips about welding or just building a bike in general would be awesome. I will post some pics of what I have done so far pretty much just bought and starting to tear it down to the frame. I do have all of the factory parts if anyone needs them. Well thanks in advance and wish me luck.

 

nice! keep us up to date with pics!

 

Damn!
Your garage is clean!
You have space on your shelves even!
The tire looks huge in this pic or is the one on my Seca really that small?
:cry:

 

Does anyone know where to get a hardtail kit for a 550 I'm trying to keep from having to fab one because I have no idea how to do it lol,

 

Take a look around the mods forum.
There are many rigid mods here to chose from.
Hope you got a thick butt.

 

Well I know it will be a rough ride but I live in a little town so it will only be 5-10 minute rides, I really just like the look of them but I have been using the search and I am having some trouble finding a hard tail kitsomething I can just buy from someone to weld on

 

Well I don't know about a kit, as theres probabbly not to big a market for XJ hardtail fabrications.
Look at Crath's bike or several other bobber conversions.
You say you're going to weld, so a kit is not essential.
Many people just fabricate a brace that bolts to the rear shock mounts.
Instant rigid without chopping up the frame.
Crath's ride

 

Thanks Hound, but I am just like the look of the hard tail, and this will be my first time welding so I was wanting to keep it to a minimum lol. Maybe I will try it though I may end up having to scrap if I screw it up lol.

 

When welding on mild steel frame members turn UP the heat. Some guys heat up the raw ends with a gas torch to "yellow" before applying welds = penetration & less stress. Get your radius' correct and measure twice. Remember to let the wire feed / tip end cool down between passes. Makes for stronger welds.

 

The Horse magazine is chopping one and have been showing what and how they did it. I'm going the easy way, bobber style with short shocks.

 

Thanks alot Tail dragger I will take that into account when I start practicing this week. I am going to be welding on lots of tubing before I actually start on the bike, so hopefully it works out well.

Where do I find "The Horse" magazine

 

One more thing when buying a welder this weekend what should I look for, are the cheap ones ok to do this with. I will put up a few links to them.
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... =100596737

I was thinking about buying that one. Here are some others

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... =100031840

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... =100039229

Thanks for your help

 

I used a little 10 amp 110V AC Wire Feed MIG Welder by Chicago Electric. It uses flux-coated mild steel wire on a spool. Bought it on eBay for $100.
As a "Wire Feed" unit it does an okay job for small pieces but its not easy to know if this type of weld has actually penetrated into the base metal. You see a nice puddled surface but what's laying underneath? It was used only for fender mounts and NOT for frame welds.

I would go with a TIG = Tungsten Inert Gas weld that shields the entire work area and penetrates down into the base metal. If the cost of the TIG "gas" Welder seems a high-priced figure ask; What's my life worth?

It may be a lot cheaper and much more reliable to have an experienced professional welding shop do your mission-critical welding and do it right.

You may want to look at having lugs welded into any butt end and top tube joints for added strength especially if you like riding fast. These are either solid steel round stock or .060 - .080 walled tubing pieces about 2-3" long that are just 1 size (1/16" or less) smaller in diameter than the oem tube's inner diam. The 'lug' is welded first in one end with 1.5" nesting inside. Then the new stock tube is placed over this first stub and welded again all the way around the seam. This process makes for a strong welded joint that's less stressed and resists cracks.

If you decide to do your own welding make sure you build a strong jig that can hold the cut frame ends exactly in-place and in perfect alignment.
Proper frame alignment is a critical safety issue with any road-going machine.

While MIG wire feed welding units may seem attractive consider that many a successful backyard chopper builder still employs old-fashioned stick welding due to its low cost, ease of use, inherent strength and penetrating power.

 

Thanks for the tips Taildragger

 

Let me know how it turns out. Think I'm going to cut the rear off my 550 and put a rigid clip on it.

 

Try this http://www.ironcross.net/Chopping%20a%20japbike.htm
The Horse websight. Shows how to put a rigid rear on a bike.

 

Here's two DIY welding reference sites.

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk

http://www.ridgenet.net/~biesiade/weld.htm

The last site has pics of Triumph style weld-on hardtails (they're similar in design and execution to the Japbike Chopping job) so one can get an idea of what the finished product will look like from different angles.

http://www.britcycle.com/Products/544/54413.htm

 

Re: Chopping up an 81 XJ 550 (A few more pics)

Thanks alot guys I am about to post some new pics, I've gotten a little more done.

 

Well I have done a little more tearing it down and its looking pretty bare. I have some factory parts as well if any of you need them. I put pictures of them in here to if you need them or whatever just PM me. I am looking to have the motor out this weekend so I can start to tear it down as well. Check out how nasty those carbs are, I think they have stuff growing in there lol. I had to put some pieces of wood in place of the shocks so I can move it around and get underneath it, so it looks kind of funny but here are some more pictures.

 

Are you tall? My XJ550 looks tiny with me on it. I have to extend the swingarm or replace it with one that's 2"-3" longer and put on forward controls. Are you putting spoked wheels on it? If so, get the wheel first and then figure your length and ride height.

 

stripped her in a hurry!! have fun with it, keep the pics coming but can you take em down to 500 x 500 thats the usual on these forums. (I did the same thing when i first came on yr with ginourmous pics)

 

Thanks for the tips on the pics, I will do that next time. I am about 5'10 so I'm not very tall and I will be keeping those wheels for now. If I build another bike it will be with spokes but not this one.

 

I was rethinking the hardtail and I came up with this and ust curious what you guys think about it working, the only problem I really see is the location of the battery and electronics.

 

dual mono shock?

 

That was just a quick thought while I was out in the garage lol, I am not going to do that though, I am still going with the hardtail hopefully by next week

 

looks like you are off to a good start. I also hardtailed my xj (750 drive shaft). It's a lot of work (no where near done with mine), best of luck to you with your project.

 

A little update.... I just got the tubing cut for the hardtail and I just put it up there with magnets to see how it's going to look, I will be welding it up this weekend.




I decided to put the tank on to see what it looked like..

 

you guys have me wanting to do mine now!!! im still on the edge, i have a long ride to work.

LOOKS AWESOME! keep the pics rolling in!

 

Now I am just trying to decide if I need to stretch it a few inches or not. I will decide this weekend.

 

lookin good...did you buy a welder? or what do you plan on using for the welding?

1st post by the way ha

 

I'm going to put rigid clip on my 550. I plan to stretch mine 4 to 6 inches. Those bikes just look way too short and stubby without the strtch. Are you planning to do anything with the backbone? I hate the way it looks on mine. I'm planning to redo mine.

 

I have another 550 engine and am thinking about building a long, low drag bike style frame and girder front end. I'm going to stretch my swingarm 3" and swap the forks. Maybe get raked trees too.

 

Welding Safety: tubing wall thickness on BMW link was way too thin ......
Build em stout

 

Dummy! You can't use electrical conduit for forks. :lol:

 

DAMN! i guess i better re-do mine! 8O